A new drug scandal erupting in MLB, maybe.

[Karak567]

Again? HGH this time.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2473485

Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Jason Grimsley told federal investigators he used illegal performance-enhancing drugs, according to court documents unsealed late Tuesday.

Thirteen agents searched Grimsley's house in Scottsdale, Ariz., for six hours Tuesday, according to Internal Revenue Service agent Mark Lessler, who would not say what they found.

In seeking a judge's permission for the search, investigators who cracked the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative steroid scandal said Grimsley initially cooperated in the probe. He withdrew his assistance in April, but not before he allegedly made "extensive statements" about illegal drug use, "for the purpose of performance enhancement," according to the court documents.

IRS agent Jeff Novitsky told the federal judge that investigators wanted to search the right-hander's house for "any and all records showing contact or relationship with any and all amateur or professional athletes, athletic coaches or athletic trainers" regarding illicit drug use and purchases.

According to Novitsky, Grimsley told him the names of other players he believed were using, but the names of those players were blacked out of the court records.

"I have no comment about that and no idea about that," Grimsley told The Arizona Republic on Tuesday, hours before the Diamondbacks played the Philadelphia Phillies.

After Arizona's 10-1 loss, manager Bob Melvin said news of the investigation might have affected the team. Grimsley spent the game in the bullpen and warmed up at one point.

"Certainly, it locks you up for a little bit, but down the road we'll be fine," Melvin said.

"We haven't convicted this guy. This is an ongoing investigation. I just think that the effect on us today, as we heard about one of our teammates, it certainly had an effect on us. Nothing's been proven. He hasn't been proven guilty of anything. It's just, there's allegations."

Diamondbacks managing general partner Ken Kendrick issued a statement saying, "We were first informed of this situation late this afternoon. This is a federal investigation, and as long as it is active and ongoing, we are prohibited from making any further comments."

Grimsley locker was cleared out on Wednesday morning and the Diamondbacks have scheduled a 2:30 ET press conference.

Grimsley began his big league career with Philadelphia in 1989 and has pitched for Cleveland, California, the New York Yankees, Kansas City, Baltimore and Arizona. He has a career record of 42-58 with a 4.77 ERA.

According to court documents, Grimsley failed a league drug test in 2003. Authorities said when he was cooperating, he admitted to using human growth hormone, amphetamines and steroids.

He added that amphetamine use was prevalent in pro baseball, and that it was placed in coffee in clubhouses -- marked "leaded" or "unleaded" to indicate which pots contained the drugs -- Novitsky wrote.

The Republic reported that Latino players were cited by Grimsley in the court documents as a major source of amphetamines, as were major leaguers on California teams who could easily travel to Mexico to buy the drugs.

The newspaper reported that the affidavit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Phoenix, said that Grimsley took delivery of two kits containing human growth hormone at his home on April 19.

Word of the Grimsley investigation comes nearly two months after an Illinois-based scientist prominent in the field of sports nutritional supplements pleaded guilty to supplying the BALCO lab with the performance-enhancing drug known as "the clear."

Patrick Arnold pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute steroids to BALCO, a steroid ring that San Francisco investigators broke up two years ago. Those same authorities are targeting Grimsley.

Arnold is scheduled to be sentenced in August and most likely will face three months in jail and three months of home detention.

A federal grand jury in San Francisco is also investigating whether San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds lied under oath about using "the clear." A separate federal grand jury is probing who leaked Bonds' testimony from the BALCO investigation to the San Francisco Chronicle.

So far, the BALCO probe has netted guilty pleas from Arnold, BALCO president Victor Conte, Bonds' trainer Greg Anderson, BALCO vice president James Valente and track coach Remi Korchemny.

[AllinDan]

I found THIS pdf in Will Carroll's column today . It's the search warrant for Grimsley's house and is pretty interesting, 23 pages about this new scandal. It names a bunch of other players, though the names are blacked out in the pdf.

heres a quote:

"Grimsley stated that until last year, Major League clubhouses had coffee pots labeled "leaded" and "unleaded" for the players, indicating coffee with amphetamines and without."

mostly about HGH though.

[ZBTHorton]

This all just makes me want to vomit.

[Jack of Arcades]

Heads are going to roll.

[irvman21]

Talk radio is making it sound like this guy has sold out every player in baseball and teams are going to have a hard time filling rosters with enough players to take the field because they'll all be suspended. Obviously that's over the top, but it will be interesting to see how many people get caught up in this, especially if he acted as a mule distributing this stuff out to other players as they are suggesting he did.

[TheRover]

This is going to be pretty awesome.

[bottomset]

maybe just maybe the Twins will all be clean(cept Rincon), and jump to a contender once the cheaters are suspended

as long as Santana, Mauer, Liriano, Pujols are clean I'm gonna enjoy the show

[CharlieDontSurf]

Those names are gonna be leaked before too long.

[irvman21]

No kidding, you can black stuff out all you want in the documents that are released publicly, but it's just a matter of time before the originals make their way onto the internet.

[J.R.]

So Jason Grimsley's shining moment of fame is no longer stealthily squirming through the overhead crawl space connecting the visitors' locker room and the umpires' room in Comisky Park on July 15, 2004 to switch the confiscated corked bat of Albert Belle with a "clean" bat from the cache of Cleveland first baseman Paul Sorrento. As we know, Grimsley's efforts were for naught, as the umpires 'somehow' noted Sorrento's name on the replacement bat, not to mention pieces of broken ceiling tiles - clearly Jason had no reason to suspect the umpires possessed such amazing deductive reasoning skills.

What a clown this guy is - he's both dumb and a rat, in addition to not really ever being a good pitcher.